Neither Congress nor the Biden administration can seem to get their acts together to halt the record influx of illegal aliens to the United States. Illegal immigration already costs American taxpayers upwards of $150 billion annually, and Congress is considering legislation that would add to that already hefty price tag.
In January, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 7024, Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 and the bill is awaiting action by the Senate. Tax relief is always popular with voters, especially when it is targeted toward middle- and low-income American families. But the bill, as written, is also a windfall for the ever-growing population of illegal aliens in the U.S.
A key provision of H.R. 7024 is an increase in the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC). The bill increases the maximum amount a parent may claim per qualifying child from $1,600 to $1,800. It would also increase the ACTC in future years, raising it to $1,900 in 2024, and $2,000 in 2025. Because Congress did not explicitly bar illegal aliens from claiming the ACTC when the program was established in 1997, the IRS has allowed them to claim the benefit. The ACTC is also a refundable credit, meaning that If the amount of the credit is greater than what is owed, the IRS sends the taxpayer a check for the difference. Given that millions of illegal aliens pay little in federal income taxes because their reported incomes are extremely low, many would be in line for even bigger government checks if H.R. 7024 is enacted.
While eligibility for the ACTC requires that the child being claimed must have a Social Security number (SSN), parents may file their tax returns using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs), which the IRS gives individuals regardless of immigration status. Indeed, the vast majority of ITIN filers are illegal aliens. However, Congress has repeatedly balked at closing this expensive loophole by requiring that parents also have SSNs—or better yet by requiring that they have legal status. Despite repeated concerns expressed about the size of the federal deficit – especially by Republicans – the GOP-sponsored H.R. 7024 failed to include this fix.
Requiring that parents who claim the ACTC have legal status is a critical reform Congress must undertake to address the Biden administration’s open-borders policies. The administration has not only opened the floodgates to illegal immigration, but it has been granting work authorization to millions of “asylum-seekers” and at least 1.8 million people they have allowed to enter the United States under parole. These work-eligible illegal aliens are issued SSNs, despite being illegal aliens.
As if the policies of the Biden administration have not offered enough incentives for people to immigrate illegally and abuse our asylum system, the prospect of even larger government payouts from the ACTC would just sweeten the pot. During the first half of FY 2024, 624,109 people were encountered entering the U.S. illegally as part of family units. As the administration continues to hand out new work permits and SSNs, the number of people claiming the ACTC and the costs of the program will only grow.
Perversely, increasing the size of the ACTC, without taking measures to clamp down on runaway illegal immigration, would harm the very people the program is intended to help. Mass illegal immigration drives down wages and work opportunities for middle- and lower-income American workers. Instead of incentivizing even greater levels of illegal immigration with the promise of a fatter government check, the Senate could better serve the interests of struggling American workers by passing another House-passed bill, H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act to secure our borders and stop the flood of illegal border crossers.
At the very least, Congress must refrain from adding new incentives to illegal immigration by passing H.R. 7024 without closing the loophole that allows illegal aliens to benefit from the ACTC.
The bill places yet another financial burden on American taxpayers, at a time when they are being forced to spend billions dealing with the border crisis that Biden administration has created.
Dan Stein is the president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).